Minister of Communications and Information Technology and Governor of Assiut witness the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding for Digital Community Development for Citizens in the Governorate

Project : Protocols with governorates

Assiut, January 2024

Dr. Amr Talaat, Minister of Communications and Information Technology, and Major General Essam Saad, Governor of Assiut, witnessed the signing ceremony of a Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry and the Governorate, with the aim of contributing to building digital capabilities and achieving sustainable community development for citizens in the centers and villages of Assiut Governorate using ICT solutions and applications.

The signing of the Memorandum of Understanding comes within the framework of the Ministry's integrated strategy to support the building of the Egyptian person, and to complete the digital transformation process by building digital awareness for individuals to keep pace with current developments that require raising the technological skills of everyone, especially young people, to achieve digitally empowered societies and build qualified cadres capable of production, innovation, competition and leadership.

The renewal of cooperation between the two parties is part of the ongoing coordination efforts between the Ministry and various state agencies to advance human cadres, and a continuation of the joint efforts that have been made over the past years between the two parties, as this period witnessed the implementation of a group of digital community development activities in Assiut Governorate, which resulted in raising the digital skills of nearly 3,000 citizens of the governorate, represented in training 515 young men and women with intermediate and above-intermediate qualifications in warehouse management and secretarial skills, as well as building the digital capabilities of teachers from vocational education schools in Assiut.

In the same context, the capabilities of more than 1,050 female craftsmen were supported with digital marketing skills for their small projects and raising their awareness of the importance and advantages of financial inclusion.

10 new centers for civil society institutions were also approved as Cisco accredited academies, in addition to training nearly 1,250 faculty members and students at Assiut University on producing digital educational content, and this package of activities contributed to raising the digital capabilities of community members there.

The new phase of the memorandum's activities - which will last for two years - is planned to be implemented through a number of development initiatives and projects provided by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, in cooperation with various institutions to build the capacity of youth in Assiut, as the activities allow for building and developing the digital capabilities and skills of youth to qualify them for freelance work, by empowering 1,000 young men and women across the governorate with training on Microsoft programs, programming and artificial intelligence, according to the needs of society.
Work is also being done on the economic and social empowerment of women through the Qudwa. Tech initiative, where free training will be provided to support 150 women and girls from entrepreneurs and craftswomen, and to enhance their capabilities in using technological solutions in the fields of digital marketing and e-commerce in cooperation with the initiative's partners.
Within the framework of building digital awareness for Egyptian citizens in light of the digital transformation process that society is witnessing, a number of trainings and workshops will be provided for children and youth in Assiut through the Digital Citizenship and Protection from Internet Dangers Initiative, which works to spread awareness of the rights and responsibilities related to digital citizenship skills and opportunities for living, learning and working in the digital world. The MoU was signed on behalf of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology by Eng. Hoda Dahroug, Advisor to the Minister for Digital Community Development and Director of the Digital Transformation Project for Sustainable Development in Egypt, and on behalf of Assiut Governorate by Eng. Amr Abdel Aal, Deputy Governor of Assiut.

In a related context, the Minister of Communications and Information Technology and the Governor of Assiut listened to the experiences of a number of distinguished models and success stories of some young men and women who received training programs for community initiatives during the previous period of cooperation between the Ministry and the Governorate, where they talked about developing their digital capabilities and how technological solutions enabled them to keep pace with the requirements of the labor market and entrepreneurship.

During his visit to the governorate, Dr. Amr Talaat, accompanied by Major General Essam Saad, paid an inspection visit to the remote diagnosis unit at Assiut Chest Hospital, which provides its medical services within the presidential initiative for remote diagnosis system, as it allows the provision of health consultations from senior doctors and consultants for medical cases in various health facilities, with the aim of facilitating citizens to obtain medical services at the highest level of efficiency, and ensuring the provision of medical services to all citizens across the republic, in addition to its role in supporting the health system more effectively, efficiently and quickly by activating information and communications technology solutions and applications in the health system. The total number of patients examined and treated through remote diagnosis units in all governorates of the Republic exceeded 110,000 cases, and the number of patients examined through remote diagnosis units in Assiut Governorate alone increased to 3,620 cases during 2023, and 11 units were operated in the governorate in each of Assiut Fever Hospitals, Al-Iman General Hospital, Assiut General Hospital, Sahel Selim Hospital, Al-Qawsiya General Hospital, Assiut Chest Hospital, Assiut Ophthalmology Hospital, Assiut Women and Children Hospital, and Abu Tig General Hospital, in addition to the units of the University Heart Hospital (Al-Orman) and Assiut University Hospital. It is worth noting that the presidential initiative system for remote diagnosis is being implemented in cooperation between the Ministries of Communications and Information Technology, Health and Population, and Higher Education, to raise the efficiency of medical and health services provided to citizens by taking advantage of activating modern information and communications technology applications in the health system